Speechless: The Battle Over Free Speech |
Free speech, a fundamental pillar of democracy, is under fire at American universities. Once a sanctuary of open inquiry, they have become embroiled in a broader cultural war over the boundaries of free expression, a process that is reshaping higher education in the United States in particular and in the West in general.
Ric Esther Bienstock, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker from Canada, examines this devilishly complex problem in Speechless, an impassioned two-part documentary currently streaming on Gem, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation platform.
In one of her introductory comments, she labels her film as perhaps “the most dangerous” of her lengthy career and compares it to “going back to school.”
She was drawn to this charged topic, she explains, because her children were about to begin their university studies. This was a source of concern to her. Universities were once places where students and faculty members wrestled with ideas, she notes. But in recent years, universities have begun to shuck off this role in the name of social justice.
A lifelong progressive, Bienstock started her journey as a neutral observer. But as she delved deeper into this issue, she grew progressively disillusioned with woke “progressives” on campus, many of whom cannot tolerate diversity of views.
Visiting universities around the country, she encountered........